Norton on Why the Ensign Amendment is Unacceptable (4/6/09)

Norton on Why the Ensign Amendment is Unacceptable to Her and Members Who Know Its Content

April 6, 2009

Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) today released her Letter to the Editor to the Roll Call newspaper regarding its article "Norton Willing to Accept Gun Provision." The Letter is as follows:

"Roll Call missed the point of Friday's hearing on the Ensign amendment if your reading is that I now accept the gun amendment to the District of Columbia House Voting Rights Act. The Ensign amendment is totally unacceptable to me, as I believe it would be to every Member of the Senate and the House if they knew what was in it. Friday's hearing was important not for my rejection of the Ensign amendment, but for the rejection by five federal and regional law enforcement officials, all of whom testified that the bill would endanger homeland security.

"The hearing was necessary because Majority Leader Steny Hoyer has said that the District of Columbia House Voting Rights Act is likely to be on the floor after recess, and the Ensign amendment is already on the Senate bill, increasing the urgency of not allowing it on the House version. My job will be to get D.C.'s Voting Rights bill passed, not to take on the larger mission of protecting the federal presence and the federal officials from the stockpiling of .50 caliber armor-piercing weapons by criminals or terrorists, as the Ensign amendment would allow. However, I believe that I should not just take D.C.'s vote and run. I have an obligation to blow the whistle to alert Members of Congress and security staff to at least look at the amendment that was unthinkingly attached to the Senate version of the bill as just another rider on a D.C. bill.

"The point of my remarks was to say, ‘Look closer.' The Ensign amendment would make D.C. the only U.S. jurisdiction where people could cross state lines, without background checks of any kind, buy and stockpile military weapons - cash and carry - to bring into the nation's capital. How many Members know that the Ensign amendment would eliminate all gun laws in the nation's capital, making the capital the most permissive gun jurisdiction in the U.S.?

"In just 25 days between March 10 and April 5, 53 people were killed in mass shootings in Alabama, California, North Carolina, New York, and Washington State. It would be foolish and foolhardy to enable the same consequences here, where the President and his family, cabinet members, Members of Congress and foreign and national dignitaries are in full view every day, and where 600,000 residents live. I don't believe we will ever have to make the Hobson's choice of guns or liberty once conservative pro-defense, pro-homeland security Members of the Senate and House know the dangerous content of the Ensign amendment. Today's editorial, "Do Right by D.C." got it right."